AdMob Mediation is a feature that lets you serve ads to your apps from multiple sources, including the AdMob Network, third-party ad networks, and AdMob campaigns. AdMob Mediation helps maximize your fill rate and increase your monetization by sending ad requests to multiple networks to ensure you find the best available network to serve ads. Case study.
This guide is your one-stop shop for integrating mediation into your AdMob app.
Prerequisites
Before you can integrate mediation for an ad format, you need to integrate that ad format into your app:
New to mediation? Read Overview of AdMob mediation.
- For Open Bidding: Google Mobile Ads SDK 18.3.0 or higher.
Initialize the Mobile Ads SDK
The quick start guide shows you how to initialize the Mobile Ads SDK. During that initialization call, mediation and open bidding adapters also get initialized. It is important to wait for initialization to complete before you load ads in order to ensure full participation from every ad network on the first ad request.
The sample code below shows how you can check each adapter's initialization status prior to making an ad request.
Java
import com.google.android.gms.ads.MobileAds; import com.google.android.gms.ads.initialization.AdapterStatus; import com.google.android.gms.ads.initialization.InitializationStatus; import com.google.android.gms.ads.initialization.OnInitializationCompleteListener; public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity { protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.activity_main); MobileAds.initialize(this, new OnInitializationCompleteListener() { @Override public void onInitializationComplete(InitializationStatus initializationStatus) { Map<String, AdapterStatus> statusMap = initializationStatus.getAdapterStatusMap(); for (String adapterClass : statusMap.keySet()) { AdapterStatus status = statusMap.get(adapterClass); Log.d("MyApp", String.format( "Adapter name: %s, Description: %s, Latency: %d", adapterClass, status.getDescription(), status.getLatency())); } // Start loading ads here... } }); } }
Kotlin
import com.google.android.gms.ads.MobileAds MobileAds.initialize(this) { initializationStatus -> val statusMap = initializationStatus.adapterStatusMap for (adapterClass in statusMap.keys) { val status = statusMap[adapterClass] Log.d("MyApp", String.format( "Adapter name: %s, Description: %s, Latency: %d", adapterClass, status!!.description, status.latency)) } // Start loading ads here... }
Choosing your mediation networks
Google mediation supports over 30 third-party ad networks. Integrating mediation requires changes in these places:
- Third-party ad network UI - Sign up for the third-party ad network and create a placement in their front end.
- AdMob UI - Update your ad unit's mediation settings to include the ad network. It is also recommended that you set up ad network optimization for ad networks that support it.
- App code - Update your app to include the third-party ad network's SDK, and an adapter library that communicates between Google and the third-party ad network to request and serve ads.
Select an ad network below to get started.
Ad Network | Banner | Interstitial | Rewarded | Native | Open Bidding1 | ANO support |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No third-party SDKs required | ||||||
Liftoff | Bidding only | |||||
Pubmatic | Bidding only | |||||
Open source and versioned | ||||||
AdColony | Country-specific | |||||
AppLovin | Country-specific | |||||
Chartboost | Country-specific | |||||
Country-specific | ||||||
Fyber Marketplace | Country-specific | |||||
i-mobile | Country-specific | |||||
InMobi | Country-specific | |||||
ironSource | Country-specific | |||||
maio | Global | |||||
MoPub | Country-specific | |||||
myTarget | Country-specific | |||||
nend | Global | |||||
Tapjoy | Country-specific | |||||
Unity Ads | Country-specific | |||||
Verizon Media | Country-specific | |||||
Vungle | Country-specific | |||||
Non-open source | ||||||
AdFalcon | Country-specific | |||||
Flurry | Country-specific | |||||
Leadbolt | Country-specific | |||||
LG U+AD | None | |||||
MobFox | Global | |||||
Tencent GDT | None | |||||
Vpon | None | |||||
Zucks | Country-specific |
Open source and versioned adapters
If an adapter is labeled "Open source and versioned" in the above table, it means the adapter source code is open-sourced in Google's GitHub repository, enabling you to debug issues yourself should you choose to do so.
It also means that there are versioned adapter builds in Google's bintray
repository, built
against a specific version of the third-party ad network SDK. You can also
integrate these adapters into your app with a single line change to your app's
build.gradle
file. Click on a specific ad network's guide for more details.
Adapter versioning
The adapter versioning scheme for versioned adapters is <third-party
SDK version>.<adapter patch version>
. For example, if an
ad network releases a new SDK version 1.2.3
, a new adapter version 1.2.3.0
will be released to Bintray after being tested against that new SDK.
If an adapter needs updating outside the lifecycle of a third-party SDK release,
the patch version will increase. A bug fix for adapter version 1.2.3.0
will
be released in version 1.2.3.1
.
ANO support
When you configure multiple ad networks for mediation, you have to specify what order to request these networks by setting their respective CPM. This can be difficult to manage, since ad network performance changes over time.
Ad network optimization (ANO) is a feature that enables you to generate the highest CPM from the ad networks in your mediation chain by automating the process of ordering the mediation chain to maximize revenue.The mediation networks table above uses the following values for ANO support:
ANO support | What it means |
---|---|
Bidding only |
The ad network only participates in Open Bidding. ANO support is not applicable. |
Country-specific |
eCPM values are automatically updated on your behalf on a per-country basis. This is the optimal type of optimization. |
Global |
A single global eCPM value is automatically updated on your behalf. |
None |
You must manually configure an eCPM value for that ad network. |
Click on a specific ad network's guide for details on how to configure ANO for that network.
Custom events
If you're looking for an ad network and don't see it on the list above, you can use custom events to write your own integration with that ad network. See Custom Events for more details on how to create a custom event.
Check which ad network adapter class loaded the ad
Here is some sample code that logs the ad network class name for a banner ad:
Java
public void onAdLoaded() { Log.d("Banner adapter class name: " + ad.getResponseInfo().getMediationAdapterClassName()); }
Kotlin
override fun onAdLoaded() { Log.d("Banner adapter class name:" + ad.responseInfo.mediationAdapterClassName) }
Refer to the ResponseInfo
documentation on getMediationAdapterClassName()
for details about this method.
Initialize your ad object with an Activity instance
In the constructor for a new ad object (for example,
AdView
),
you must pass in an object of type
Context
.
This Context
is passed on to other ad networks when using mediation. Some
ad networks require a more restrictive Context
that is of type
Activity
and may not be able to serve ads without an Activity
instance. Therefore,
we recommend passing in an Activity
instance when initializing ad objects
to ensure a consistent experience with your mediated ad networks.
Banner ads mediation
Make sure to disable refresh in all third-party ad networks UI for banner ad units used in AdMob mediation. This will prevent a double refresh since AdMob also triggers a refresh based on your banner ad unit's refresh rate.
Rewarded ads mediation
We recommend that you override all default reward values by setting reward values in the AdMob UI. To do this, select the Apply to all networks in Mediation groups box so that the reward is consistent across all networks. Some ad networks don't provide a reward value or type at all. By overriding the reward value, the reward is consistent no matter which ad network served the ad.

For more information on setting reward values in the AdMob UI, refer to create a rewarded ad unit.
Native ads mediation
The following are some best practices to consider when implementing native mediation.
- Native ad presentation policy
- Each ad network has its own policies. When using mediation, it's important to remember that your app still needs to abide by the policies of the mediated network that provided the ad.
- Use
loadAd()
instead ofloadAds()
- The
loadAds()
method currently serves only Google ads. For mediated ads, useloadAd()
instead.
Open Bidding troubleshooting
When integrating an Open Bidding partner that requires their SDK, the following symptoms indicate an improper integration:
- The Open Bidding Report shows significantly fewer ad requests to that partner than you expect.
- The
a3p
parameter in any request after the first ad request is missing or is short (30 characters or less)
Follow this checklist to make sure your setup is correct:
- In the AdMob UI, your AdMob ad unit targets a mediation group that has an Open Bidding entry configured for that third-party ad network.
- In the AdMob UI, your AdMob ad unit belongs to the same AdMob app ID that you passed to the Google Mobile Ads SDK.
- You initialized the mobile ads SDK, and
verified the adapter status is
READY
prior to loading an ad.